Who was Ali Abdullah Saleh?

Ali Abdullah Saleh was born on 21 March 1942 in the small town of Bayt al-Ahmar. He was a member of the Sanhan tribe.

He was the president of the Arab world's poorest nation, Yemen from 1978 to 2012.

Amid years of civil war and unrest, the two presidents who preceded Ali Abdullah Saleh had been assassinated.

On 2 February 2011, after a series of protests against him, Ali Abdullah Saleh announced that he would not run for re-election when his presidential term ended in 2013 and that his eldest son, Ahmed, who headed the elite Republican Guard, would not seek the presidency either.

In 2005, Ali Abdullah Saleh had declared that he would not seek another term, however in 2006 he was elected to another seven-year term in office.

In 1990, he presided over the merger of North Yemen and the formerly Communist south.

In June 2011, President Ali Abdullah Saleh flew to Saudi Arabia to receive medical treatment, after being hit by shrapnel just below the heart in a rocket attack or bomb explosion.